Unearth’s Buz McGrath and Trevor Phipps Talk ‘Watchers of Rule’ Album + More

Unearth's Buz McGrath and Trevor Phipps were the guests on Full Metal Jackie's weekend radio show. The rockers discussed their new 'Watchers of Rule' album, the addition of Nick Pierce and their future plans for the immediate future. Check out the interview below.

We're here to talk about the new record. When an album is difficult coming together, like 'Watchers of Rule,' how does a band stay focused through the challenges?

Buz McGrath: It fuels us. It's a very aggressive record for us to write and record. We had some stuff in the studio and it just kept us chomping at the bit to get out there and tour and play these songs. It finally all came together and we've been playing 'The Swarm' live, the single on our tour with Darkest Hour. Once we really get into the cycle, we'll be playing a bunch of the songs live.

Drums are the foundation of any good band. With Nick [Pierce] now in the band, what is it about his playing that put Unearth in an even greater position of strength in the studio?

BM: I think he's a bit more technically inclined, than some of our past drummers, which allowed us to take what we do even further. Plus, I think he's a bit more hip to some of the more modern stuff that maybe we haven't been into. He's trying to get his name out there, he's swinging his c--k around trying to get seen on that drumkit. I think he did a pretty good job of that on this record.

When it comes to the way that people respond to your music, in terms of this new album, how have your goals and expectations changed compared to any of your previous albums?

BM: For me it's not as important to me, that people have to like it or it has to be successful. That's what we do, we made this record and if people don't really like it, I don't put as much weight in that as I used to. It would bother me in the past, but now I think we've been doing it for so long that I don't have time to worry about it.

Trevor Phipps: I think this band started by us just wanting to write songs that we wanted to write. That's what we were founded on. We all came from the ashes of other bands that didn't really do much. We had a local scene in Massachusetts and bands didn't really get out of there and we reached a point in our lives where we were just like, let's just write songs for ourselves and if people like them, that's cool. That's kind of what each record has been. You can't try to impress people, if you do than you sacrifice the organic part of the song. These songs are written from what the band wanted to hear and it came out and so far the response has been great, which is a bonus. This is what we do for a career so we want people to like it. But the songs are written as songs that we wanted to hear.

Tell us about Mark Lewis. This isn't the first time you've worked with him; he produced this new record.

BM: Yeah, over the past few years he's got one of the hottest ears for extreme metal projects. We'd been talking to him for years. We had been friends saying let's do a record one of these times. This time around it came together and he did a great job on the mix of 'Darkness in the Light' so we got him on to produce the whole thing. I think it came out awesome because of it. His style fit the type of music that we were writing for this particular record, I think really well.

Tell us about the touring plans and what's in store for the rest of 2014?

TP: Right now, there's nothing that can be announced just but we'll be touring for sure on 'Watchers of Rule.' Keep an eye out for us either the end of this year or very early 2015, we'll be playing a bunch of those songs live.

Awesome, thank you so much guys! Best of luck on 'Watchers of Rule.'

BM: Thank you, Jackie!

Thanks to Unearth's Buz McGrath and Trevor Phipps for the interview. 'Watchers of Rule' is available at Amazon and iTunes. Keep an out for Unearth playing dates at these locations. Full Metal Jackie’s weekend show can be heard on radio stations around the country — for a full list of stations, go to fullmetaljackieradio.com.